Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces auditions for 2010-11 season

CLEVELAND, February 2, 2010 ’Äì The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra today announced auditions for the 2010-11 season. Auditions will be held at Severance Hall between May 11 and 29, with late afternoon, evening, and weekend audition times available. Middle school and high school students, who study an instrument privately and are involved in their school music programs, are invited to audition. Openings are available for the following instruments: violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, tuba, and percussion. Audition applications must be received by Friday, April 9, 2010. The application fee is $25. Those interested should contact Ashley Smith, Youth Orchestra manager, at (216) 231-7352 or coyo@clevelandorchestra.com for details and to receive audition materials.

During the 2010-11 season, the Youth Orchestra will give three performances at Severance Hall as well as concerts in the Greater Cleveland community. A 25th anniversary celebration is tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2011.

Members of The Cleveland Orchestra serving as coaches to the Youth Orchestra and leading weekly sectional rehearsals include William Preucil (violin), Yoko Moore (violin), Emilio Llinas (violin), Lynne Ramsey (viola), Richard Weiss (cello), Bryan Dumm (cello), David Alan Harrell (cello), Mark Atherton (bass), Marisela Sager (flute), Elizabeth Camus (oboe/woodwinds), Daniel McKelway (clarinet), Hans Clebsch (horn), Michael Miller (trumpet/brass), Thomas Klaber (low brass), and Marc Damoulakis (timpani/percussion).

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, now in its 24th season, is a full, 100-member symphony orchestra of young musicians from 45 communities in 13 counties of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The ensemble was one of five youth orchestras chosen to participate in the National Youth Orchestra Festival at Michigan’Äôs Interlochen Center for the Arts in June 1998. In March 2001, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra made its debut at New York’Äôs Carnegie Hall, as part of the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series, and at Penn State University’Äôs Eisenhower Auditorium. In June 2009, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra successfully completed its first six-day, four-concert tour to Boston, Massachusetts and its surroundings. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by generous grants from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and many other donors. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles.